The First Quartet
by the stargate time traveller
Summary: The thoughts of the original gang as UCOS was first set up.
1. Chapter 1 Brian

I don't own New Tricks, the BBC does.

* * *

New Tricks.

The First Quartet.

When he heard from his old friend and colleague, Jack Halford about the new unit the police were setting up to crack open unsolved cases and the police didn't have the money or the resources to bring in currently serving officers but were planning on instead using retired police officers, Brian Lane was instantly intrigued.

His primary interest was the possibility of taking a look at cases bad coppers had not really bothered to investigate and had simply dumped on the pile to gather dust because they were just incapable of investigation because they wanted to look good.

Brian had to admit to himself there would likely be cases that had been deemed unsolvable by the bloody higher-ups simply because too much time was being invested in them by detectives who were as dedicated as himself and Jack. It would likely put a few noses out of joint, but Brian didn't care. He had very little respect for the higher-ups in the police, especially those who were more suited to spending time in Parliament than in a nick.

But he had other reasons for not liking the higher-ups….

Brian closed his eyes and rubbed his balding forehead while he thought about the invitation Jack had sent him.

He was surprised Jack had sent him one given that although they were friends, there were likely other police officers whom he would have liked to work with him in this new unit.

Okay, while the name UCOS - oh, you had to love police acronyms, especially in the modern age of what those bloody young amateurs deemed policing; they spent more time yakking on about police procedural rules without thinking hard graft and a bit of rule-bending actually got results in the long term - had a lot to be desired, Brian imagined it would be just the thing for bored ex- detectives who had _nothing _better to do with their time than sit around and wait until they suffered from severe arthritis or die of boredom.

_I certainly fall in the latter category, _Brian thought sadly to himself, thinking about all the times which had become more and more common over the last few years since his _**retirement **_since he had gone about doing things, like reading books or play puzzles, only to get bored because the stories or the puzzles were static, and there was no real intrigue. The problem with many mystery novels were the plots and the outcomes were so predictable Brian wondered why they even bothered putting pen to paper. It made no sense to him, really.

Esther was in two minds about him joining this new UCOS. On the one hand, she wanted them both to have something in common, something to talk about; Brian wasn't stupid, and just because he was oblivious to what his wife thought and wanted, he wasn't completely ignorant.

He and Esther would never have lasted this long if that were the case. Brian knew he sometimes aggravated his wife; that massive mess where he had taken pills and had become an alcoholic when the stress of being a cop was becoming too much for him to handle, and it had turned him into a shadow of the man he had once been was a primary example.

But on the other hand…

Esther knew how depressed he was, how bored and listless he was.

She knew he wanted - NO! _**needed **_something meaningful to do in the long term, but she was terrified, and he could definitely see it in her eyes if he joined UCOS, he would suffer, and likewise their marriage would take another blow much like it had when he had become an alcoholic, which had spiralled out of Brian's control.

Brian really wanted to join this UCOS.

Not only would it get him out of the house and back into the land of the living, as he deemed detective work, a world he had thought he had left when the last disaster had happened. But best of all, he wouldn't be returning as a cop.

Although he had loved been a police officer, and he had hated to leave since it was one of the best things in his life since it had given him the opportunity to put his brain and mind to the task of solving crimes, using intellect over brawn as many of his colleagues had done, sometimes even planting evidence which to Brian was one of the worst sins you could commit, especially since it had the unfortunate habit and biting you in the long term.

Brian could understand the appeal of course, but it was only because of his mind and his way of looking at the world as though it was a massive jigsaw puzzle for him to solve that he had ignored it all, even though other police officers who had become respected heroes among the rest of the force had done it, in fact, they had built their entire careers on lies. Always so _sure _they had the right guy, always so sure they had been one step ahead. Oh, they had been one step ahead alright; one step into the consequences for falsifying evidence, and Brian personally knew a hundred people whom he was positive had done it.

At the same time, he didn't want to go back to being a DI. Brian may have hated how he had left the force, and he might have resented his downward spiral into booze and depression, but he knew one of the primary reasons behind it deep down was because of his duties as a Detective Inspector which had brought him down; the never-ending complaints directed towards him because of his obsessive attitude towards the cases he was working on as he was dedicated to solving them.

He remembered the stress and the aggravation; he had his own beliefs about the mess which had resulted in his retirement from the police

Thinking about those bastards who had respect because they had fitted some criminals up for things they hadn't done and had gone on to be heroes in the force, only that was because they had done things in a calculated way to make them look good made Brian annoyed. He found if he and this new unit (if he got in) found cases where some of those so-called heroes had made a monumental mess disguised as a watertight case, he wouldn't be sorry about shoving it in the face of the amateurs. Brian paused as he realised he was letting some of the anger he was feeling over how he had been treated in the last few years of his career. Not good. It wouldn't do to be angry, not if he wanted to keep himself sharp. But he couldn't help himself since he was thinking about Anthony Kaye.

He was _convinced _Anthony had been left to die, choking on his own vomit. Everyone had claimed he had made a mistake and there was very little sympathy aimed his way since the whole disaster had occurred during the height of his alcoholism, but Brian was convinced there was a conspiracy against him; Anthony was a well-known drug offender at the time, he should have been checked over. He wasn't sure how high up this whole mess went, but he was convinced the officers in charge of the custody suite had conspired to not do anything to help Kaye from dying and push the blame onto him, and since everyone knew he was a drunk, no-one would question it.

Brian hoped he was admitted into UCOS. He hated not knowing the truth, but he was not sure if he knew he would like what he found out about the truth of the case.


	2. Chapter 2 Gerry

The First Quartet.

He didn't know for sure why Jack Halford would think of him when he had sent off the invitation, but Gerry Standing was happy he had. Sure, while he had come to enjoy his retirement, where he could do and say whatever h wanted, he had to admit to himself he did miss his old career in the police. But he was still surprised to have received the invitation to head up this new unit had heard was being set up by the police to look into unsolved cases - Gerry didn't really give a shit, really, but what drew his attention to the invitation was the promise of _doing something. _And getting paid for it.

Gerry hated to admit it to himself, but he was bored.

He hadn't had that many plans when he had been in the Job, but he had always planned on trying to rise higher in the force, although truthfully he wasn't sure if that would have been a good move on his part as he had been made Detective Sergeant. The higher you got, the more politics bogged you down, and the more likely the blame if anything went wrong was dumped on your shoulders. Gerry didn't have a problem with that given he was man enough to face blame if he needed to, but he just wished his time in the job hadn't been so conflicted.

He grimaced as he remembered where it had all gone wrong, ever since that time he had accepted Ackroyd's invitation to join his team; okay, at the time it had seemed like a great idea. Martin Ackroyd was seen as one of the best coppers in the London met, with dozens of collars under his belt. Who wouldn't want to serve under him?

But as soon as Gerry transferred, he found himself surrounded by bent coppers, all of them bought by the Chapman family. When you said the term _organised crime _it definitely applied to that bunch of lunatics, especially Dominic Chapman who was certainly a psychotic bastard. It had been a shock when he had found out Ackroyd, who had encouraged him to gather evidence on what Bryant and McCabe were doing, was as bent as they were, and to this day he still didn't know or understand the point behind it.

Gerry shook his head, wondering why he was allowing Ackroyd to haunt him after all this time, but he remembered the way everyone had suspected him as being bent.

Nah, Ackroyd was long since gone.

He'd gone off somewhere, disappearing to some beach far from the reach of the Chapman's. It was ironic; he had come out hoping to get away from that world, away from the threats to his family - Caitlin had only just been born at the time - but it was like the world had turned topsy-turvy, and everyone thought he was bent simply because he got on better with crooks than most thought a thief-taker should be.

Okay, Gerry admitted to himself there was some truth to that since he had dealings with some criminals, but it wasn't what most people thought. The trouble with so many coppers was they saw the world in tones of black and white, or in today's case procedure over hard graft. Gerry had lost count of the number of times he had turned the TV on or read a newspaper article, and some sick bastard had walked, only to re-offend again which made him ask himself what the hell was going on, it was as though everyone in the force had lost some of their brains.

But the belief he was bent had hung around him like a bad smell, like a fart which followed you around. Gerry had lost count of the number of times he had been accused, either directly or indirectly by other coppers, sometimes people he had worked with, of being bent. Gerry had sometimes asked himself if Ackroyd or someone else in that poxy team had spread those photos of him and Tommy Naylor; he wouldn't be surprised if it had happened, and if it had been Ackroyd it would have been the perfect revenge since it had cast doubt on him, haunting his career ever since.

Gerry had remained lucky over the years, but going to work had been a bleeding chore, and no matter how often he had proven himself and how often he had tried hard not to mix with crooks and gangsters, that shadow had hung over his head and he had never been able to shake it off.

Bevan had been the final straw. Gerry grimaced as he thought about that bastard. _How _could anyone be as stupid as Bevan? Everyone outside the stakeout _knew _the old bill was hanging around, and even some of the other coppers on the team were dubious about it, but no; Bevan would have none of it.

The little bastard had accused him of sabotaging the stakeout, not even realising it was a dead-end anyway, and beating a young girl. Gerry grinned as he remembered just _how good _it had felt just _punching _his idiot boss who didn't even deserve to be in the role in the first place, and Bevan did deserve to be punched.

In any case, looking back… Gerry could honestly say it had been a long time coming. There had been moments where he had become so frustrated with the idiots he'd had to work with, it had been so tempting just to punch their lights out, but he had held back since sometimes he had seen them redeem himself. Bevan wasn't one of them. There was nothing to redeem; he was a useless twat who only wanted to look good, and he loved talking about the media and looking good with them as well when most of the other coppers nearby just wanted him to do his job. If he actually thought more about what was going on, then maybe the stakeout mess would never have happened.

Gerry pushed those thoughts out of his mind and looked down at the invite again. He shrugged.

Why not? Maybe if he went for it, he'd get it, and if he didn't then so what? Sure, his exes were driving him mad, along with the girls, but even if he didn't get this he had other things to occupy his time with.


	3. Chapter 3 Jack

The First Quartet.

UCOS. Unsolved Crime and Open-cases Squad, or Don Bevan's love child, the Unsolved Crime and Waste Of Time initiative, and to be headed up by Sandra Pullman.

Jack wasn't sure how to feel about that; while he liked animals and didn't like it when they were harmed, a part of him couldn't help but find it funny Sandra had made such a balls-up of the last operation she had been in charge of by shooting a dog some moron had let go of, but then again when she had gone into that line of police work, and by god there were just so many of them nowadays. In the past, there had just been CID, Vice…now there seemed to be a new squad opening up daily, it was hard to keep track.

Sandra had phoned ahead, asking for help and insight into who could be part of the new UCOS; Jack knew she wasn't happy about being given the task of assembling a team meant to look into old cases, and he could also tell while she was happy at the thought of him being back in her life she wasn't happy about how it was down, nor was she thrilled at having to have to rely on retired coppers to see UCOS work. Jack knew how she felt, but at the same time, he was put out with her attitude.

He knew he wasn't able-bodied, nor was he particularly healthy as bit by bit his body was wearing down, which had been happening even more as he waited for the day he would finally be with his beloved wife Mary again, but Jack knew he could still do police work so long as he wasn't expected to run, and he already had some ideas about who would be good for this unit.

The thought of Mary, however, clouded Jack's mind and he closed his eyes in sorrow.

Jack had never gotten over her tragic death. It had hit him just so hard and so badly, it had caused his work to suffer as a result even though at the time he had simply lost interest gradually even though he had tried to pull himself together to remain focused, hoping that by working again, he could cope, but he couldn't so he had retired.

Jack had barely looked back, but he remembered meeting all of his old friends - Brian Lane, Gerry Standing, Ross the Mountie, and all the others. All of them knew how devoted he had been to Mary, and they knew how he had felt on her passing.

For years, Jack had been trying to learn how to cope on his own. While it was easier said than done, more than once he had woken up some mornings, especially on Christmas Day or on Mary's birthday, and she wasn't there. It had taken him some time to get used to her loss, and it hurt every time.

With the police, Jack had the means of distracting himself, but he didn't have that during his retirement, and he'd needed to find ways of distracting himself during his newfound freedom.

But with UCOS, working to solve unsolved cases which had been investigated by all kinds of coppers, those who actually did a fantastic job but had either lost evidence, or didn't have all the facts so they'd had no choice but to declare it unsolved, or those who merely wished to look good in front of their peers and invariably didn't have a clue what they were doing, or were so corrupt it was a wonder they hadn't been arrested and charged with negligence or the deliberate mess up of different cases.

It would be a great idea to solve so many cases again, and best of all, he wouldn't have the responsibility of heading anything up even if he knew he could do the job.

That was one of the reasons why he had agreed to meet with Sandra, although he hoped she wasn't going to shove some of the shit the modern police force were shoving down everyone's throats, about procedure, and looking good. Like many ex- coppers, Jack had his own scruples; while many ex coppers believed the only way to get a confession was to thump it out of whomever they liked, Jack preferred doing things properly, with a bit of underhanded tactics thrown in for good measure to make sure the cases were solved.

Jack didn't care if he stepped on any toes. He didn't care about the politics in the police. Indeed, he had run into them as he had risen steadily through the ranks, having to deal with one political move after another, which had caused more trouble than it had really solved. Don Bevan wasn't Jack's favourite person, but even Jack was intrigued that Bevan would want to set up a new cold case squad, but he guessed Bevan was more concerned with the thought of more police corruption coming out with the murder case Roddy Ringer was supposed to be responsible for, he just wanted to prevent it.

Whatever the reasons were, Jack neither knew nor cared.

But still, he was ambivalent about the whole thing. While he enjoyed the peace of his retirement, no meetings, no more filing of reports or dealing with incredibly dopey idiots who inevitably screwed up or caused problems while having to teach ambitious superstars like Sandra Pullman whom he was sure had long since become brainwashed and conditioned to become more political until they had no thoughts except "will I look good?" or "will I survive if something goes tits up?"

Jack sat on the garden bench and looked at the special memorial he'd set up for his wife after her death so he had no need to constantly go back and forth between his home and the cemetery so he could speak to his wife whenever he wanted. He wondered how Mary would have felt, if things had been different, and UCOS had come up…

He chuckled.

He knew she would have said "_Oh, go on…I miss the chats where I dazzled you with my insight into your cases. What are you waiting for?"_

"Alright, Love," he said.


	4. Chapter 4 Sandra

The First Quartet.

_He can't be doing this to me, that bastard! Not after all I've worked for!" _Sandra thought to herself as she drove home after the bombshell she'd endured after being told she was not only going to investigate a murder case, which at the time it had been solved, had looked watertight, but was now looking more like a leaky raft with those dodgy police officers being discovered.

Truth be told, Sandra was in two minds about investigating cases which had not been solved or simply hadn't been investigated properly and had been relegated to some dusty archive for decades, especially since some of those cases had been investigated by what she presumed were well known and well thought out officers. She didn't want to step on any one's toes, especially in this case since Ian Lovett had commendations and a career which was so distinguished Sandra was amazed there wasn't a statue of him somewhere.

It was that part which drowned out the irritating but persistent doubt in her mind which was saying _it was worth while to investigate the cases, _rather than it being some complete and utter waste of time.

Still, she would do her job.

The only problem was _retired officers would be drafted to help her. _

_**Retired police officers. **_

Sandra didn't want that since many of those retired officers had come from a time where police corruption was rampant; every day there were rumours of another officer, someone who had either been too stupid to be cautious, or so arrogant they had thought they wouldn't be caught at all.

As she drove home, she had to admit that she was being a bit unfair there; she was judging people who were said to be bent, but that didn't necessarily mean there wasn't some truth to some of it, although she couldn't say for sure.

When she walked in through the front door, shivering from the coldness of her flat - Sandra spent a lot of her time working, and she hadn't really personalised her home that much; she had just wanted to live in a place where she could live in and spend most of the day out at work, and since she had no family although a part of her wanted very much to have children of her own to give her life some meaning beyond giving it all to the police force, the flat was cold, and the white painted walls didn't help the atmosphere.

It was like being inside an iceberg.

Sandra turned the heating up and she prepared something to eat, and she decided to just have some cereal but she warmed the milk up so she didn't feel like she was having anything icy in this equally cold place. As the milk started to heat in the pan while she boiled enough for some hot chocolate as well as some nice cereal with some warmed up milk, Sandra mentally went over the tasks she would have getting this UCOS department up and running.

She already had a pile of ex-CID officers files on her kitchen counter, and as she ate her meal, Sandra realised quickly she had no idea which of these people she could trust, and who was even still alive since the police generally just had files open for serving officers and didn't really care what happened to them after they retired.

As she drank her hot cocoa, she grimaced; it wasn't really strong enough for her tastes. She grabbed a bottle of brandy, and she poured a generous measure into the mug and stirred it quickly to fortify it. When she lifted up the mug, the rich taste of hot chocolate mixed with the equally strong and rich taste of the alcohol tickled her throat and lit up her brain.

She took another sip, and with the brandy in her system as she went through one file after another, Sandra realised she was out of her depth. She didn't know any of these people, and she was adult enough to realise she needed some help.

Finally she came across a face from her past, one she hadn't seen for a long time.

Jack Halford.

She grinned.

Jack had been one of her best bosses. He had taught her, trained her, encouraged her. While he had been a demanding boss at times, he had never treated her harshly even though she was up to the challenge. Whenever she had done something wrong, he would just point it out to her softly and in a gentle manner, although sometimes they had argued but those moments were few and far between. Sandra smiled as she thought about working with him again, and then the smile was snuffed out quickly when she realised something important about Jack.

She genuinely had no idea if he would even want to come back. Indeed, he had left under a cloud when his beloved wife Mary died, it had hit him pretty hard after being devoted to her for so long. True she had to understand and accept the fact Jack might not be interested in UCOS, but Sandra hoped he would help her since he would help her find the right people for to set up UCOS, or he could at least point out someone who could help her.

Still, at least she would try her best.

After she was finished with her meagre meal and after she had cleaned up, Sandra went to the living room and turned on the telly. She had left the files in the kitchen, she just wanted to be left alone with her thoughts without worrying if anyone mentioned in those files was alive or dead, or as good as dead, or had simply moved beyond her reach.

As she watched the telly - there was nothing on, typically, not even when she watched the reruns on Dave; as she watched them, she found herself enjoying the old episodes of _The Bill, The Last of the Summer Wine, _and _The Good Life, _and _Poirot. _She did enjoy the older TV shows than she did the new ones.

Old ones over new ones…

In theory, the new ones should be far superior, and they were since they had better effects. Unfortunately, there was something about the old ones which really appealed to viewers.

Sandra couldn't help but think about the retired and older police officers who had left the police a long time ago. Maybe all of this wouldn't be so bad; yeah, it would be difficult to find the right people, those former officers who weren't bent and no-one had found out about their corruption, but in the long term their knowledge and experience should really help UCOS take off.

She would phone Jack tomorrow morning, and arrange for a meeting. Hopefully he would be willing to speak to her, and if he wasn't willing to be in the unit then she would find those who were.


End file.
